


Let's be disrespectful and wildly inappropriate together

by aron_kristina



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Break Up, F/M, Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-01
Updated: 2011-02-01
Packaged: 2017-10-15 07:13:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/158360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aron_kristina/pseuds/aron_kristina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not that she's unfulfilled, really, she's just so very bored.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let's be disrespectful and wildly inappropriate together

**Author's Note:**

> Written for an exchange on LJ. Beta by C.
> 
> Feedback and concrit is loved.

It started when she was at the Burrow, she and the kids, to meet up with Ginny and Mrs Weasley. Mrs Weasley and Ginny are in the kitchen fixing some tea and one of the kids are whining about wanting water, so she goes into the kitchen. When she's outside she hears Ginny's voice, and she sounds upset, so Hermione rethinks her plan. She's about to turn back when she hears her own name.

 

"...can't tell Hermione", Mrs Weasley says.

 

"Of course I won't. It'll just make family dinners awkward", Ginny says, sounding more tired than angry now.

 

"She will tell Ron, and you know how he is. The thought of one of his brothers in love with his wife..." she hears Mrs Weasley say, and she turns back to the living room. She doesn't want to hear anymore, she doesn't want to have heard anything at all. She doesn't want to know this, doesn't want to think about which of Ron and Ginny's brothers are in love with her.

 

*

 

She does manage to push it from her mind for a while, but she can't forget it, and sometimes when Ron talks about letters he received from one of his siblings, or when he looks at her a certain way, or even when she talks to Ginny she just can't. Stop. Thinking about it. It annoys her. It's possibly just because she's bored, wants to have something interesting to think about. Yes, that must be it.

 

She isn't thinking about it because it might be a certain person, she's thinking about it because she likes knowing things. It's a personality trait. Can't be changed. She wants to know who it is. She needs to know who it is, needs it to put this out of her mind. So she formulates a plan.

 

*

 

The plan is pretty simple, all things told. During the next family dinner she's going to make sure she gets each of the brothers alone, discreetly, of course, and then she'll just... Well, what she'll do then, she's not quite sure of yet, but she'll figure something out. Maybe she'll subtly question them, and figure out which one it is. Or see which one seems to be behaving weirdly. More weirdly than usual, that is.

 

*

 

When the time comes she doesn't actually have to think for all that long. Now that she knows it's so obvious. Bill is in love with Fleur, painfully so, still. Hermione wonders how they do it, because they seem so passionate still, if the way they touch each other is anything to go on. Ron and her hardly ever touch anymore, and they haven't been together as long as Bill and Fleur have been. Sure, Fleur is prettier than she is, she can admit that, but that doesn't explain why Fleur herself still seems so content and happy with Bill.

 

Charlie doesn't say anything about any significant others, but she knows about him, so he was crossed off the list immediately. Still, she takes time to talk to him, because she likes him. He's nice, and funny, and she hopes that he will say something that gives her a clue. Unfortunately he doesn't.

 

And that leaves Percy and George. They're both sitting with their wives, well, ex-wife in George's case, and this is the tricky part. Or she thought it would be, until she watched them, and noticed Percy doesn't look at her, well, not more than he looks at anyone else, but George. George sneaks looks at her as soon as he thinks no one is looking. She has to give it to him, he isn't completely obvious, he's just not that subtle either. She smiles to herself, mission accomplished.

 

*

 

And then she still can't stop thinking about it. It's like a curse, the smallest thing makes her think of George. How he's changed since they were at school, and how he's stayed the same. He still pranks, and makes jokes, but they're somehow milder now, destined to make the person who is the butt of them laugh too, not laugh at their expense. He's softer now, has grown his hair out to make the loss of his ear less visible, but it's not just that. He's so very affectionate with his kids, not that Ron isn't with theirs, but still. It's just something about George.

 

*

 

Then it's a birthday party for one of the kids. It's held at the Burrow, like most of their celebrations. It just happened that way, makes it easier for everyone, and Molly gets distressed if she can't at least handle the dishes and the cleaning. She's grateful for it, and she knows Ginny is too, but it's maybe a bit weird, by other people's standards.

 

The party in itself is intense, kids running around and most of the adults trying to keep them from breaking anything. Luckily Molly and Arthur don't have a lot that can break. Since it's a party for kids they don't get a lot of adult time, but Hermione manages to sneak upstairs for a while, just to breathe, but she's not been up long, sitting in Ginny's old room before the door is opened.

 

"Can I come in?" George asks, smiling a little. She nods.

 

"Yes, please", she says. He sits down next to her on Ginny's old bed.

 

"Ron said you had gone upstairs. Thought I'd check and see if you wanted company," George says, and she smiles at him, can't stop looking into his eyes. She can see the likeness of him and Ron, of course she can, but at the same time it's different. He's not her husbands older brother, he's a man, and a man she suddenly wants to kiss, desperately.

 

They look at each other, leaning in closer, and their lips brush. It's not much of a kiss, truth be told, but there is intent behind it, not just from him, and that surprises her enough that she draws back. George looks at her, eyes soft, and she can't stay. She runs downstairs and hides in the bathroom for as long as she can, before washing her face and going out to pretend to the rest of their family that nothing had happened.

 

*

 

After that it's not even surprising she can't stop thinking about it. She does stop feeling guilty pretty soon though, because she just doesn't have time for that. It's a feeling that doesn't really do anything, doesn't add anything or change anything. And she would do it again if the chance presented itself. She does suppose she should feel guilty about that, but she doesn't.

 

Ron doesn't notice anything wrong, because he never does. She can't stop thinking about him in completely uncharitable ways, even if she loves him. Is supposed to love him.

 

The bitch of it is, she doesn't have anyone to talk about this with. She could talk to Harry, but that would just end up in bloody disaster. He's not known for being rational when it comes to Ron. Sometimes she thinks it would have been better if the two of them got married instead. Harry practically married the closest thing he could come to Ron, she just happens to have breasts. Which is important for reasons Hermione can't figure out. Sure, she's never been attracted to a girl, but then she's never been close to anyone but Harry and Ron. And Ginny has more balls than Ron ever will.

 

In the end she decides she will have to talk to Ginny. At least she already knows some of the situation.

 

*

 

In hindsight, Hermione really should have seen it coming. That Ginny would tell Harry, or maybe not tell him, just drop unsubtle hints and hope he picked up on it. Perhaps he already knew that George was in... liked her. But really, Ginny telling Harry, that was just unsisterly!

 

She's been sleeping on her parents sofa for the last two nights, because Harry had of course told Ron, who had flipped out spectacularly. Hermione had stayed until Molly showed up, just to make sure the kids were going to be fine, and then she ran. She actually ran, all the way to the bus stop, which was a fair bit, and then she'd taken the bus to her parents'. It took a lot of time, but it gave her time to think. The movement of the bus soothed her, made her think of when she was a little girl, before everything, the wizarding world, the war, kissing her husband's brother.

 

Her mum offers her hugs, a shoulder to cry on and doesn't press her for information. Her dad distracts her with scientific research, and trying to understand magic by having her explain, for what time she doesn't remember. She is so grateful for it she almost starts to cry again, but she knows her dad isn't good at handling tears, so she holds them back.

 

She can't hide here forever, at one point she has to go back and face reality, but she doesn't want to do that before she's made a choice. She wishes this choice was easier than it is. She wishes it was easy, like deciding to join the war, to fight for what is right, but this isn't that kind of choice. This is the kind with two bad outcomes, and she has to decide which of them she can live with.

 

*

 

In the end it only takes her one week to decide what she should do. She thinks it should be more painful than it is, but Hermione is rational, and she once made her parents forget her. Nothing hurts more than that, nothing Hermione wants to think about anyway, so when she returns home she is calm.

 

She's greeted by most of the Weasley clan, and Harry of course, because it wouldn't be any other way. This can't be a private thing, no matter how much she wants it to be, because the Weasleys aren't that kind of family. They're close knit, and everyone's dirty laundry has to be dragged out in the air for everyone else to see. So she stands there, in the middle of the living room, with everyone's eyes on her. She clears her throat.

 

"I'm sorry", she says, because that is always a good start. "I didn't mean for this to happen, but it did, and..." She looses the thread a bit there, because Ron is looking at her, not looking betrayed or angry, but rather confused. But she knows what she has to say, so she continues. "Ron, I have loved you very much, you have to know that, but it's just, I can't do this. I have to start over on my own, I think, and I have to figure out what I really want."

 

There is silence, of course, and every single person in the room is staring at her. She stands there and lets them watch her. The only people who aren't looking some version of shocked, betrayed or angry are Ginny, George and Fleur. Ginny looks almost smug, and George looks like he doesn't know what to think at all. Like he wants to jump up and down in joy. And Fleur looks bored. Like this isn't such a big deal. It's comforting, although she would never have thought so if someone had told her.

 

Then all hell breaks loose, questions are thrown at her from every direction, and Hermione tries to stand up for herself, answer the questions, but when she's asked for the third time if she's had an affair she can't stand it longer, and walks out of there.

 

*

 

Ginny is the one who finds her. Naturally. Not that she's really in hiding, she's just at the pub down the road, drowning her sorrows in the horrible vodka they have there. She's not usually a drinking girl, but she feels she has earned it. Ginny takes the shot glass from her when she turns up though.

 

"Give it back," Hermione says. She makes a grabbing motion, but Ginny is a seeker, so that fails.

 

"We're going," she says, and grabs Hermione around the waist to drag her out. Hermione doesn't want to leave, but she doesn't have a choice. Ginny is strong too, not only good reflexes.

 

"Where we going?" she asks, or at least she thinks she does, but Ginny doesn't answer. Just apparates them somewhere.

 

*

 

Somewhere turns out to be Shell cottage. Ginny dumps her in Bill and Fleur's guestroom and Hermione thinks she passes out, because when she wakes up it's morning and she feels awful. She staggers to the bathroom and tries to fix herself up, but she has a feeling it's not entire successful. When she walks into the kitchen Fleur snorts, but doesn't say anything. Ginny is still there, and she looks at least a bit sympathetic.

 

"Good morning, lightweight," she says as Hermione sits down.

 

"I will never do that again. Never ever," Hermione says, and takes the coffee Fleur gives her gratefully. Ginny and Fleur both snigger.

 

*

 

When Hermione has managed to clean up a bit better, and even eat something, Ginny tells her to sit in the living room and then she leaves. She comes back a minute later dragging a somewhat reluctant George behind her. She pushes George down in the sofa, and Hermione is glad she's not the only one Ginny manages to push around.

 

"You two are going to talk. I don't care what the results are, as long as there are some," Ginny says before leaving and shutting the door behind her in a very final manner. Hermione leans forward and puts her head in her hands. She should be reasonable and grown up, but she's hung over and she just wants to curl up somewhere and sleep.

 

"So..." George says, and Hermione groans.

 

"Can't we pretend we did this part already?" she asks. She hears him laugh.

 

"And say what?" he says, and she looks at him.

 

"You're the prankster. I'm the respectable one. Make something up." He smiles at her and she feels herself starting to smile back.

 

"I think you've lost your position as respectable," he says, still smiling. She laughs.

 

"Yeah, I think so too. Well, there's nothing to be done. Let's be disrespectful and wildly inappropriate together," she says, and kisses him.


End file.
